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American Idol: Hollywood week, night one
Ahh, Hollywood week … when all of those kids the “American Idol” judges pumped up by feeding their delusional dreams get a reality check in the form of a boot back to local, semi-celebrity in Anytown, USA.
I was glad to see Antonio Wheeler, aka “Skiiboski,” hit the road. Likewise the former “Barney and Friends” sidekick turned dominatrix Erica Rhodes. Those two should never have been sent through.
Danny Gokey look- and sound-alike Andrew Garcia made it to the next round on a really sweet reworking of former “Idol” judge Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up.” Crystal Bowersox’s rendition of “Natural Woman” was really good, too.
The biggest question of the night was how new permanent judge (well, as permanent as anything is on “Idol”) Ellen DeGeneres would fare. Would she be sweet? Funny? Mean?
Here’s a sampling of reviews from around the Internet this morning, followed by my own brief thoughts. Please take a look and then share your own.
The Mercury News blogger is “encouraged.”
“The fear with Ellen coming in is that, unlike Paula Abdul, she has no singing experience. But as she explained to Ryan Seacrest, she knows what it’s like to perform in front of millions and try to win over a crowd. So it wasn’t surprising that most of her comments had more to do with stage presence than vocal prowess.”
Fox News says our initial feeling was “eh.”
“We’re not convinced that America wants to see Ellen being mean — we ourselves would rather see her doing her dorky dance moves than shattering people’s dreams.”
Rolling Stone wrote that DeGeneres “dressed like an extra from a Gap denim ad.”
“She got to work being honest, but not brutally honest, lightening the mood when tension threatened to take over the room.”
A Washington Post blogger noted “I’d never noticed how much Ellen and Seacrest look like each other.”
“She’s funny in all the right places, but she doesn’t seem to sacrifice criticism for a punchline. She certainly seems to add a more clear-eyed assessment of the proceedings than poor woozy Paula did.”
I thought DeGeneres did fine — about as I expected she would. Of course, the Hollywood week shows are tightly and ruthlessly edited, so it seemed to me as if “Idol” was making a point to show us that Ellen — surprise! — has a sense of humor. It will be interesting to see how she handles herself when the live shows begin, but Ellen’s a pro, so I’m not worried.
Her eyes were really blue and piercing though, right? Those had to be some kind of contact lenses or camera trick. At times I felt like I was watching one of the “Twilight” movies.
How’d Ellen do by you? Sound off!
Tonight: the brutal group round. Come back tomorrow for a recap.
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